MONTCALM COUNTY, MI – An inmate’s worsening medical condition and calls for help were ignored for days before she was found dead in her cell at Montcalm County Jail, a lawsuit says.
Amber Bills, 34, of Big Rapids, died Dec. 30, 2018.
A lawsuit, filed by her husband, Jeremy Bills, said corrections officers and medical staff ignored her serious medical condition believing she was detoxing from methamphetamine.
Bills died of natural causes: an undiagnosed perforated ulcer with peritonitis, according to her death certificate.
The Michigan Sheriff’s Association conducted a two-month investigation but found no wrongdoing or criminal acts.
Sheriff Michael Williams, who is named in the lawsuit with 15 sheriff’s workers, two doctors and a registered nurse, said his office has not yet been served with the lawsuit. He declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Bills was booked into the jail on Dec. 22, 2018, eight days before her death. She had been arrested for driving while license is suspended and an outstanding warrant for failing to appear in court. Bonds totaled $1,000.
On Dec. 26, 2018, while playing cards with other inmates, she “suddenly doubled over in pain,” Southfield attorney Kevin Riddle wrote in the lawsuit.
Someone pushed an emergency button in the jail, according to the lawsuit.
Her condition got worse the next day. Inmates reported that she was vomiting, pale and bent over in pain, holding her abdomen. A corrections officer saw her lying on the bathroom floor by the toilet, the lawsuit said.
Bills saw a nurse that afternoon. Police said she saw the jail nurse on multiple occasions.
“It was apparent to each of the Corrections Officers, based on their perceptions and what they were told by Amber, inmates and other Corrections Officers that Amber Bills was in serious need of medical attention,” Riddle said in the lawsuit.
Medical staff on Dec. 28, 2018, started Bills on a detox protocol, he said. At some point, she had told a nurse she was detoxing from methamphetamine use. The attorney said that she would not have been detoxing at the time because methamphetamine withdrawals usually peak within a day or two.
The next day, Bills, who continued to vomit and report stomach pain, pushed the emergency button. She would throw up anything she ate or drank. She repeatedly asked to go to the hospital, an inmate said, according to the lawsuit.
On the day she died, she refused medication and screamed for a doctor, the lawsuit said.
Inmates recalled her cries for help.
“Amber cried ‘Help me, Mommy help me’ and ‘I’m sick,’” the lawsuit said.
A corrections officer allegedly said “‘that’s how it feels to detox,‘” the lawsuit said. Another told her to “Suck it up,” and said she was not going to go to the hospital, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit alleges wrongful death, violation of Bills’ civil rights, gross negligence and/or willful misconduct and medical malpractice.
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